Upon my Honor
by Yamiyugikun
Summary: Tales of Vesperia. When When Flynn witnesses Yuri killing Cumore, Flynn awakens to the darkness in Yuri’s heart, but to the beauty within it as well. Flynn x Yuri friendship, shonen-ai, one-shot, complete for now.


**Title:** Upon my Honor

**Fandom:** Tales of Vesperia

**Pairing:** Yuri x Flynn

**Genre:** Friendship, shonen-ai (boy x boy romance)

**Rating:** PG13

**Summary:** When Flynn witnesses Yuri killing Cumore, Flynn awakens to the darkness in Yuri's heart, but to the beauty within it as well, realizing the true feelings he always held for Yuri but never voiced until now.

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**Flynn's POV**

Rivulets of golden sand rushed like rivers into a yawning chasm of quicksand, perhaps more like sandy snakes, winding their way to the pit's bottom, swallowing those that fell in to certain death. In the naked moonlight, an eerie shade of silver, cast ominous shadows, in the way the harsh light hit, illumining the entrance of the pit, as if it were some opening to the gates of hell itself, hell where righteous justice smites the wicked, like Ragou who killed his own people for his gain. That grim reaper who sent him to hell strikes once again, in the form of a dark clothed figure, chasing his victim to the edge of the sand pit, struck in utter fear with terror sown over his face, as if he experienced death while alive in the horror shown right over.

"Using your power to terrorize people. There's not a soul in the lower quarter as evil, you've gone too far this time Cumore," hissed the harbinger of death, his slim muscular figure advancing toward the noble like a feline stalking its pray.

An inner wellspring of primal fear tapped, about to fall in, rooted to his spot stock still, with shivers up his spine, Cumore cried in desperation, his shrill voice splitting the solemn night, "N-no, stop… Stay back!" His trembling cadence quivered. "Don't come any closer, you beast!" He shuddered, wracked with fear, his entire frame trembling violently under his pink armor, shivering through his lilac hair.

The assailant's dark raven tresses twisted in the wind. His gleaming black eyes, crystallized with sorrow, seemed to swim with tears, at the same his chiseled face hardened, a mask of malice worn over the pain inside, at recollecting how the people of the lower quarter were bled dry by taxes, strangled by the tyranny of nobility above. Years of bitter memories etched deep in his psyche, like a blade scraped in over, gouging out a wound over time, agonized him to his core.

_I've got no interest in an empire that just sits and does nothing while its people suffer in plain sight_, he told me back at Cape Nor with regret written in his face_. But you've gone so far promoted as captain. I can't let you dirty your hands. So I'll have to do things my way. _

And then he rained his justice down his justice by killing Ragou, a noble the law couldn't touch, who fed his people to monsters, or sold their corpses for money. And now Cumore used his position in the Knights to send villagers out to the desert for death, in hopes of catching Phaeroh, offering the lure of money, when it was to send them to their deaths, adults first, then eventually children. And I, Flynn Schifo, couldn't do a thing bound by the Knights, the reputation of my honor resting on deeds spoken far and wide.

Yuri and I were like the same soul, bound in separate bodies, a sense of justice forming the very bridge between us. We vowed as children in the lower quarters, homeless, suffering the plight of commoners, to one day change the world, in birthing a realm where just laws are laid. But along that honorable path, Yuri fell into the shadows the day he quit the Knights, becoming the reaper I see now, as the blade he held glinted in the moon like some deadly scythe about to cut one's throat.

"I'll give you money, anything you ask for. I am Cumore, Captain of the Imperial Knights, the man destined to become Commandant!" he cried, loosing his footing at the sight of eyes so dark, they cast a shadow upon this very night.

Yuri's eyes burned with a rage I'd never seen like black fire, revealing the pain in his soul turned to agony, pure vengeance gone in writhing black pools. I saw into the darkness of Yuri's soul, a man I knew better than anyone alive, my other half I loved with all my heart. Best friend, sworn brother, closer than lovers, bonded thicker than blood, that was the tie we shared. It tore me apart to see my better half, like he took the pain I felt inside, to leave me pure, an honorable Knight, doing my bidding in his glare.

_Yuri!_ I wanted to cry, frozen with fear beyond a pair of palm trees, lining the streets of the town, about fifteen feet away. _Don't stain your hands with the blood I should, because I'm too afraid to act. I'm a failure for believing in laws that let criminals like Cumore go, but if you kill them you're no different than the villains you condemn. Yet by striking them, you save many lives. What is justice, anyway? Regardless, killing another makes you a criminal, as a Knight whom I must punish. _

I reached out grasping empty air, the phantom of one I loved, lost in the darkness of his soul. The very air dividing us felt like a curtain fallen over, a density so thick and impenetrable, not even my loudest screams in the throes of death could reach him.

With Yuri's predatory gait, Cumore wailed, "Uaaaaghh!" at the top of his lungs, finally slipping in, a fool in the jaws of death, those golden rivulets of sand trickling in like snakes, pooling around him as he sank, "I—I beg you! Spare my life!" He struggled, sinking as the sand gathered like fingers pulling in quickly beneath.

He loomed over the edge of the pit from Cumore's vantage point, a towering statue silhouetted against the sky, studded with stars, and the rings of Montaic's barrier blastia up above his head. Cast like a halo, it rendered him in the guise of vengeful angel on earth. If any celestial music might accompany his presence, it would be the choruses of crickets chirping peacefully the moment Cumore fell, echoing Yuri's justice.

Cumore coughed fitfully, one hand shooting up, palm thrust open in desperation, begging Yuri for mercy. "P—please, no! Not like this! I—I don't want to go like this!" his pain racked sobs spilled out. The ultimate terror one faces in the final moments of death raced through with a vengeance, in his beckoning call to Yuri.

"Tell me," Yuri said sternly, with calmness, self-control than frightened me when I saw the anger in his eyes. His solemn voice echoed out, "How many times have _you_ heard those very words?" In 'you' rang Yuri's pain, driving to the brink he stands at.

If he could kill all the evil embodied in the world, he thought it'd be done in the sand swallowing Cumore. In reality, a foolishly blind noble, I wanted to punish him but not kill him, but through proceedings in a court of law. Yet the very system I trusted would let Cumore walk out free, as it did Ragou. Torn between my own inability to act in saving Cumore's life, while agreeing with Yuri's justice, I cursed myself for the pathetic fool I was.

Angry with myself, I stormed out at Yuri from my hiding place. "Yuri!" I cried, brandishing my blade. "You killed him, like you did Ragou. They were to be tried in a court of law. Again, you act so recklessly."

"Flynn!" he cried back, as if snapped from a trance his anger had controlled. "Those laws left me no choice. I had to take matters into my own hands, because if I didn't, those bastards would kill more innocent people. You can't deny lives were saved cause they were put down. Just why are you here with the Knights, controlling Mantaic?"

"We came here to arrest Cumore, sending him to the Capital to be tried, that is if he had lived. After that, I have orders from Commandant Alexei to head to Nordopolicia, blocking the Weasand of Cados," I stated, fixing my blade at his throat. I didn't know if I could trust him. After all, he just killed Captain Cumore. "We'll seize the coliseum by force if necessary. But I believe that through our actions, a greater peace will be wrought on the world at large." Doubt wavered in my voice. Yuri always knew the truth and spoke it.

"That's crap, Flynn. That's nothing more than an excuse to go around using force, just what I've come to except from the Empire," Yuri replied, sighing heavily speaking the truth as I knew it. In his sadness he returned to his rational self, the brother I grew to love, his throat grazed by the very tip of my blade. "So you've become a model Knight, following every order. Congratulations," he added bitterly. "You make a fine pawn. I'm sure Alexei is proud."

"Shut up! You're nothing more now than a common criminal," I hissed back, my grasp wavering on my blade, to avoid cutting Yuri's trembling throat. "Murder is a crime. As a Knight, I cannot overlook your crimes, even if you're my friend. I fear their Highnesses Ioder and Estillese were too lenient in pardoning you, now that I know what you've done."

My own throat tightened, my voice caught back pain in the pain. No, I couldn't let Yuri see me vulnerable. He'd loose all respect for me as a man, especially now as my enemy.

"What's done is done. It's too late. I know murder is a crime. I've dirtied my hands by doing that." Yuri's face darkened, his eyes narrowing, as his chin sank down on my blade, pressed between his jaw above and collarbone deep beneath. "So don't you go walking the path Cumore and Ragou took, making innocent people suffer. If you do, I'll do whatever's necessary to save them, even if it means taking your very life. I won't let my friends suffer either. Estelle's in great pain thinking she's some poison. That's why I'm taking her to see Belius." He clenched his jaw, unmoving, forcing my blade in his throat. "And if you get in my way, I'll fight you if I have to."

A drop of blood, trickled out in a stream, like crimson tear rolling down, staining his dark vest beneath. My blade had cut the skin above by his throat. I winced, pulling away, wanting to cry out, _Yuri, are you okay? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you._ But I steeled myself to fight, charging straight at him, my blade limning an arc shot straight at his heart like an arrow plunging in.

He parried faster than my naked eye could follow, an incredible godlike sped, quicker than the wind twisting his raven tresses. The naked moonlight caught his face, eyes gleaming with silver reflecting its striking hue. Narrowing, they burned with flames as he evaded my deadly blow. But in their boundless depths lurked sorrow, blackened pools writhing with regret: grief at the reaper he'd become, having no remorse at the villain just killed, consumed by the darkness of his soul. But underlying all that was the pain he caused me by forcing my blade against him.

_By doing things my way, I've become everything you detest_, Yuri cried inwardly, riding the wind itself. _But what could I do when helpless people were killed, fed by Ragou to his monsters, adults sent by Cumore into the desert, leaving their children orphaned?_

I caught the hem of his vest wavering as he jumped, slipping on the very same spot Cumore stood, feeling the bottoms of my boots sinking in where his feet crushed the sand, moments before he fell. Just like Cumore plunging to his death, I cried out, "Noooo!" as gravity hurled me down. That primal fear raced though, a phantom blacker than death about to take my life, in the yawning sands pit to swallow. About to hit the bottom in the same hell killing Cumore, I imagined his hand thrust out, breaking from the sand, pulling me to my death.

_You impudent commoner, suffer like I did in my final moments_, his rising ghost cackled, or did I dream that in my own final moments as well?

Whether I crossed over that line between life and death, thinner than two sides of a paper, in the last out breath and in breath one takes, one side being life, the other death, I passed out from sheer terror, plunging in to my own inner darkness, a black tunnel falling down forever, the opposite of the light people find in near death experiences, when their loved ones or angels tell them to return. Out of those bleakest depths one expected demons, a fallen angel cloaked in shadow shot up, seizing me on its wing. I imagined black feathers, illuminated with the sheen of crow's feathers, matching Yuri's hair, beating wildly spanning the sky.

His arms like black angel wings grabbed me as I fell, the moment I passed out, cradled in his arms. In a single powerful leap, his entire body coiled like a spring, thrusting up from the sandy bottom, as he sailed up through the air before that pit could swallow us whole. He laid me on the ground at the edge of the pit, further in from where Cumore stood so I wouldn't fall back in.

"Repede, get me a gel, he's out cold," hissed Yuri under his breath.

In the boarders of my conscious, I made out the scuffling of Repede's paws, a low obedient bark, of him racing back to the inn, where Yuri's friends slumbered away in the night. Above the pattering of Repede trailing away, I made out the echoes of my Knights, of Sodia my second in command.

"Damn, they must have heard Cumore," he spat, sweeping me in his arms. "But if they catch me or think I tried to kill Flynn, when Estelle must meet Belius and Nordopolica's about to be attacked."

Yuri stole away with an assassin's nimble stealth, in how he darted before Sodia's torchlight hit him in its fire, casting a red glare off the golden sand. "Sir Flynn! Sir Flynn!" hollered my Amazonian lieutenant Sodia. "Witcher, have our men on duty search every house around. We've seized control, so the people won't suffer under Cumore, but Flynn may be in danger if he's gone after Cumore. And if that Yuri did anything to our Captain, I'll tan his hide myself!"

"He's a bad influence on Sir Flynn," Witcher chimed in, nodding. He darted past the palm trees where I had hid, down the sandy street right outside town where the Knights had set up camp. Yuri scurried away with me hoisted over his shoulder, by the time Witcher stormed off, finding refuge by the edge of the oasis lake five minutes walk from any streets.

_What idiots_, Yuri thought, having retreated. _It's a wonder Flynn puts up with any of 'em_.

Ferns growing by the lake's bank swayed lazily in the breeze. Here, far from the site of carnage where Cumore fell in the pit, the very soul of the space seemed to change. The moonlight no longer appeared threatening but breathtaking, in how it danced on the waves lapping against the shore. Its gentle glow bathed Yuri in a single brilliant beam streaming down, cloaking him in silver. The celestial light softened the angles of his face, no longer a vengeful angel's, but a true one that saved me when I fell. If it weren't for his strong supportive arms lifting me out of that pit, I'd be dead this very moment. I felt his love in his grasp pulsating around my body. His voice softened too, its usual deep timbre, vibrating in his throat pressed up against my face.

It flowed out in steady tones, its smooth cadence stroking my pain. "Flynn, nothing ever changes, does it?" he sighed, propping me against the trunk of a gently bowing palm tree, hovering in the breeze, its black silhouette against the starry sky. "Good to see you're as stubborn as always…"

A scurrying sifted in the dark. Not a wild animal's but an old familiar friend who followed his master's trail to the lake, once he fetched a bag.

"Good boy." Yuri smiled petting him.

Repede whimpered, giving a low bark as not to draw the Knights' attention. Yuri took the sack he dropped, loosing its drawer strings, pulling out a gel. He unwrapped its outer wrapping holding it to my mouth.

"Flynn, wake up. You gotta eat this, and get better. Damn it, this is exactly the kind of thing Estelle does when she pushes herself too far. He's as stubborn as her." He sighed in exasperation. "But if Flynn is out unconscious, then I really have no choice. If I shoved it down his throat whole, it'd end up choking him and kill him. All right, Repede, you'd better not tell anyone what I'm about to do."

A canine smile crossed Repede's face, the pipe dangling from his mouth. "Woof!" he barked.

"Are you suggesting that chew up that gel in my own mouth, then sticking it in Flynn's mouth so he can swallow it is like…kissing him!?" His eyes widened in shock. "No, I'd never kiss a guy, not even think of it. But if it's to heal Flynn, I guess I got no choice." He smiled, bursting out in laughter. "If Flynn knew what I was about to do, he'd really kick my ass.

Yuri reluctantly popped the gel in his mouth, chewing it kept a straight face. Leaning in to me, he hesitated joined in lips to mine, imagining he wasn't kissing me as it spilled in my mouth, along with the sugary juices of his saliva running down my throat. He gasped pulling away. "I can't believe I…don't think I like you in this way, Flynn."

Somehow when his lips brushed mine, even though I was unconscious, it tapped in me a place beyond my conscious mind, in the recesses of my heart, where long dormant feelings, I thought once faded began to awaken rushing through. I always held Yuri closest in my heart. After all, in our ideals of justice in how to change the world, our bond has been a tumultuous one. I long admired him for his daring acts of courage, sometimes recklessness I'd censure. But the more I scolded him, like in our first meeting back at Nor Harbor, the further I drove him away. There's a darkness in his soul in the way he feels his feelings, raining his justice on those that hurt others. He loves so deeply and cares that he hurts his own inner being, I fear.

That's what I meant when I told Lady Estellise, _Yuri's so single-minded when it comes to protecting others. He's willing to sacrifice himself to do it. I envy him for that, but I also worry he'll take it too far. _And that's just what he did in killing Ragou and now Cumore.

If word got out to the Knights or Council, he'd be executed on the spot. If he died because of my actions I could never forgive myself. What he says is true that a noble's life is worth more in the eyes of judicial magistrates, themselves being nobles. A commoner like myself, even if a Captain's is considered worthless, simply because of my lowly blood. I could understand Yuri's cynicism, taking the path he did. And that's what truly pained me. I wanted to be like him in using my blade to save others.

I coughed when he tapped me on the back, forcing the gel down my throat. The sudden haze of fear lifting like a fog, rushing through only moments before from watching Cumore's death left me paralyzed in shock.

"It'll be okay," whispered Yuri gently, leaning my heavy head on his firm, muscled shoulder calming me with its warmth. "Are you alright, Flynn?"

"…mmm, yeah," I murmured at last, finding my vision clear, with Yuri's face taking up my entire field of site. I couldn't remember the last time we were this intimate. "You… saved me. Why?"

"You're my friend, I care, even if you're still an Imperial Knight. You know me better than anyone alive. I didn't mean to hurt you, I'm sorry," he replied, raising his hand to feel the pulse on my neck, racing beneath the warmth of his skin burning on mine. "I couldn't help myself before, caught in the heat of the moment, watching those people in this village sent out into the desert on Cumore's orders to find Phaeroh. When I saw those orphaned kids, I saw myself in them as a child, alone in the lower quarters, living on the street all alone, that is until I met you. Seeing how Cumore treated our people in the lower quarters, I got so angry I lost all control. And that's when I scared him into the pit saying, 'tell me, how many times have you heard those very same words,' as he begged for his very life. Does that make me into the very villain I condemn, Flynn?"

Yuri's eyes, a soul-swallowing shade of black, darker than the night, searched my very soul through his feathery bangs over his face. He was so beautiful with his long purple hair streaming out behind him, painted by twinkling stars above.

My entire body went limp in his arms under his touch at the fluttering in my heart. I lay helplessly nestled on his lip, my head pillowed in his elbow, gazing up into his black onyx that moments ago burned with rage, so full of compassion now at the pain he caused me, I truly wanted to cry. I tried to look away fighting tears, but his hand on my chin stopped me.

"Don't ask me that, Yuri. I know you're honest in your feelings. You've always been, that's why you quit being a…Knight," I whispered, trying to mask my very pain.

But he saw right through in a smile over his lips. "Always admitting I'm right," he whispered back, his sweet breath brushing past his lips hitting mine, only inches above my face, still smelling surgery from the gel he chewed moments ago before he forced it down my throat. "But you're my better half, always watching me from behind." He smiled through his bangs tickling my face as he spoke.

He was passionate at the same time he kept a straight face. Could he see through to the true feelings I held for him deep in my beating heart? I realized the sweet aftertaste lingering on my lips was his, making my heart skip a beat faster.

"I…I'm worried about you," I murmured, trying to push him away, fighting the blush that wanted to rise in my cheeks. "You tried to kiss me, didn't you?"

"I knew you'd think that, Flynn." A playful expression brightened his lovely face. "I had no choice to get you to eat that gel to heal you. You passed out from shock when you saw Cumore falling in, which was entirely my fault."

I said nothing finally pushed him off. I sat straight up, breathing hard, panting, my chest constrained beneath my woolen tunic worn over, and the badge signifying my rank as Captain. If he wasn't aware of my feelings after all those years, then maybe he knew it in the blush tingeing my cheeks.

"But you're the one who's hurt now," I cried, reaching for his neck. "I didn't know if I could trust you then. First aid," I prayed, closing my eyes, focusing the aer in my body, materializing as a soft green light healing Yuri's wound.

The light of my healing spell refracted was in green hues along off the contours of his face, down around his neck, reflected back in his eyes. His lips tinted from my magic widened and he wrapped his hands around my wrists.

"It was just a scratch. I'm fine," he feigned, trembling as the exposed flesh of his inch deep cut finally closed beneath my magic touch.

I groaned ripping off the end of my cape, dipping in it in the lake, gingerly wiping the caked blood off his naked chest where his vest opened exposing it. "You were really hurt, you know that? I told you not to do anything reckless when we met back at Nor Harbor. And here you go taking 'justice' in your hands. Now that you're a real criminal, do you think I can get Master Ioder to pardon you again? Your life may be in danger. I fear for you, Yuri. I…" If I loved him as more than just a friend beneath my feelings all those years, I couldn't live if he died.

"I know what you want to say, Flynn," Yuri sighed, his gaze dropping mournfully to his feet as he sat reclining against the tree trunk I once rested against. "That I've walked down a path I can't turn back on, giving the Knights a reason to really kill me."

As he spoke his sight wandered back to moonlight dancing in waves that lapped up on the shore, reflecting on their surface Mantiac's barrier undulating out in rings of light above, broken on the lake's rippled surface, shattering Yuri's reflection as well. The halo those barrier rings once cast, rendering him in an angel's guise was broken in the way the water fractured it. My artes could heal his physical wounds, but not the one's in his heart that lingered on through time. I wanted to cry destroying that single-minded will of his that made himself sacrifice himself for others, protecting them with his life.

"What about me, Yuri? My feelings about what might happen to you," I retorted, bottling the pain inside. At least when he was in the Knights, he was by my side I knew he still lived.

"You're my best friend, Flynn, and here I've gone hurting you…" His eyes fluttered half shut, gazing out meditatively out over the water.

I reached for his hand squeezing it in mine. "Well, you've become more to me than just that." I bit my lip, fighting the words trapping inside, forming a lump in my throat.

His visage broke away from skimming over the water, slowly turning until it locked with mine, his very expression I dreaded. A smug look crossed his face, softened by affection. The stars above lit his very eyes. The moon's silver light outlined his head like a halo. A gentle breeze sighed over the oasis lake, carrying the cool night air in it's breathe, wrapping the ends of Yuri's hair around me stroking my whitened armor.

"I figured as much," he spoke softly, gazing at me with love. "You must swear though, not to tell anyone in my guild. I wouldn't know what I'd do if…" He raised a hand to his forehead out of fear.

"Of course!" I cried, sitting stock-still. "But do my feelings not…"

Yuri turned a palm up, shrugging. "You feel what's in your heart," he continued, placing his other hand over his heart beating beneath. "But if you keep it to yourself, what'll happen, Flynn? There are places in each of us no one else besides the other can touch."

"Then I'm alone…when you're not here." I laid my own hand over the one on his chest, clasping it in my gloved hand, wrapping my fingers around, squeezing the back of it hard, letting him know in my touch just how deeply I truly felt.

The palm he hand turned up, he placed on my shoulder stilling me, allowing me to take his hand over his chest in mine, now held up now between us. At that moment I heard the scuffling of feet in the distance, from the little dusty road running through Montiac nearing the lake at an amazing speed. Judging by the rapidity of the pace, I guessed it was Sodia always prompt and quick. If I wanted Yuri to know how I truly felt, it was now or never. Even if he'd hate me for this I had to show him. The feelings in my heart reached a point where I could no longer hold back and live. I prayed to god this wouldn't destroy our friendship.

"Yuri, forgive me…" I whispered, winding my arms around his neck, pulling him close in my embrace.

His arms curled around my waist, expression remained calm as if he forgave before I showed my feelings. Seeing my own reflection mirrored back in his black onyx eyes, I felt myself drowning into his pools, as my own eyes fluttered shut in that deep feeling when my heart took control. I felt my pulse hammer in my neck, racing beneath my skin flushed pink, trembling in my lips, parted ever slightly, scared when I leaned into him, capturing his lips in mine. At first our mouths brushed then melted into a deep, soul searing kiss when I saw the love, his acceptance his slow and steady gaze. Yuri cared for others so deeply, even me, if he didn't feel about me the same way I did concerning him, he didn't want to hurt me.

"Don't tell anyone, please," I implored, averting my visage suffused with shame. "I'm sure my feelings will pass, and it'll be as if…none of this ever happened."

"Flynn, stop trying to act so perfect, always beating up on yourself, thinking you can bear every single thing on your own," his deep bass voice flowed out, lilting up over my shoulder, as he lifted his hands to my cheeks, forcing our gazes together. "Including your feelings for me. You may not be part of Brave Vesperia, still an Imperial Knight who chooses to do things his way, but you're my dearest friend, always watching my back. If I act reckless, who'll be there to scold me cause they care? Who else can I argue with who'll remain close to me after? True friends won't abandon each other even in the toughest of times when the world turns its back on you. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Yuri, I…" My voice died in my throat.

I had no words for an angel as loving as him. Even if he appeared a dark, fallen one at first, deep inside his heart is only love for those held dearest. I saw in the center of his being, in the place his soul dwelt, somewhere inside I was there. Our bond surpassed all words with a knowing that passed between us, an invisible thread binding our very souls.

His purple mane splayed about in the wind wrapping around, rippling the surface of the lake, lapping up on the shore as the moonlight still played over. His eyes gleamed again in the dark, deep pools lovely as the lake itself, holding in their facets his last parting feelings when he stood. Sodia's very steps seemed to chase away his form, melting into the darkness around the lake. The night finally swallowed him from my eyes, though his scent still lingered where he'd sat and we kissed, etched in my memory forever.

"Captain! There you are," exclaimed my subordinate. "We thought something…"

I shook my head gravely, my countenance suffused with feeling. "Its nothing. It seems Cumore ran off before I could find him, with Yuri no where to be found." Of course I lied through my teeth, but Sodia suspected every word knowing something was amiss.

"Understood, Sir Flynn," she replied simply, knowing we'd had a run in.

She despised Yuri, blamed him for all my problems and loss of knightly behavior, but the real reason is when I'm in his presence, I can't help but feel my very heart flutter. Can an Imperial Knight still love another man and be manly? Sodia along with the rest of my brigade held me to the highest standards, thus a slip of subtle behavior could mean my entire loss. Yuri had no tolerance for a formal, structured world, embedded inside it all rituals and rules. He was to be free like the very wind through his hair, the freedom I yearned for in vain.

The strength I gained with Yuri in my bond waned soon after. It was after I blockaded the Weasand of Cados following Alexei's orders. I must find the apatheia at Nordopolicia, or suffer the loss of my honor as proclaimed by Commandant Alexei. The head of the Empire's military, the embodiment of its virtue, the Knights believed every word he said. For the sake of changing the laws from the inside, amending them so people could live lives of prosperity, and criminals be brought to justice, I couldn't give up my vision following Alexei's orders. Of course at that time, I didn't know his intention to commit treason by abducting Lady Estellise.

"Flynn, I thought you really changed," Yuri said heartbroken with regret when he escaped from Nordopolicia's coliseum, after the siege my forces led, and Belius just died. His heart was bitter with her loss, and Estelle's deep-seated pain at having caused it.

"Yuri, I…" My voice trailed off. No, I had to hold my ground in the sight of Sodia's presence. "Return Lady Estellise and the stone," I demanded.

"Using brute force, that's just what I expected from the Empire. So you really are following Ragou and Cumore's examples," Yuri hissed, narrowing his eyes, gleaming with anger held in. "You told me how you felt about the path I've chosen to take, but what about mine towards yours?" His burning gaze searched me deeply. "Maybe you're carrying out your 'duty,' but you can't just go around using force. I thought you were with the Knights to change things like that. I don't know why I have to be the one telling you this of all people…"

I saw pain twisting Yuri's visage. My bond with that exquisite angel who I kissed yesterday at the lake was torn apart forever. Caught between feelings for him and my duty, I felt I failed in both. I was nothing more than a failure unfit to be Captain. Yuri saw this truth as he passed.

This was my last chance to tell him as his guild fled from my forces, this time as enemies. I hurt him so deep by becoming what he hated, it didn't matter at this point how much he hated me more. So I said it just as he passed, a whisper in his ear, "Yuri, I love you…" wondering if the very world would end. Only he heard it, my soul I exposed in its fullness.

Tears swam in his eyes beneath his cold outer guise. Only I saw through to the real Yuri inside, with all his pain and joy. The Yuri his friends knew was this selfless soul who pretended he could bare it all, stoic in his strength. His lips parted as if he wanted to utter something, voicing the words caught back in his throat.

But my brigade storming after forced them ahead into the harbor, where their ship awaited moored. I caught one final glimpse as he gazed back over his shoulder. As his ship raced out towards the sea, leaving a foamy trail in its wake, the last lingering rays of the setting sun painted the ocean gold. In that shower he vanished, when the sun dropped below the horizon, swallowing with it the vision I behold of Yuri. I wondered if we would ever meet, if our bond might be healed, if he'd return my love or forgive me.

_Owari_

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**Author's note:** That came out rather sweet XD, a lot different than the Yuri x Estelle lemon I recently wrote. Even making Yuri x Flynn shonen-ai (light romance) is twisting things between them, as the main couples in the game seem to be Yuri x Estelle, and Estelle x Rita. Even before I played the game and saw Yuri and Flynn's character designs, I thought they were lovely together. I may continue this depending on how I see their relationship evolve in the game. Thank you everyone who read my other Vesperia fics. Your feedback is inspiring me, so I'll keep writing more when I have time, cause school keeps me busy. I'm working on another chapter for _In my Arms_, and I'll write a Rita x Estelle if I can. I love reviews, and thank you everyone for reading.


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